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Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. ABOUT THE BOOK
  3. Dedication
  4. PREFACE
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY
  55. ENDING
  56. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  57. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  58. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  59. Also by Val Wood

‘At first Filip said we must stay; it was our right to live in peace in our own country, but then,’ her voice dropped, ‘there was to be a demonstration and Filip was going to join it, and we were warned by someone that Filip’s name was on a list and that he might be arrested for – I think you call it – causing disturbance?’

Ellen didn’t know either, and thought that she knew little of what was happening in her own country, let alone other countries. ‘But if it hadn’t already happened and he hadn’t done anything wrong?’

‘It was to stop him in case he did,’ Anna explained. ‘But it was – what you say, the final straw?’

‘How terrible,’ Ellen murmured, comprehension sinking in that she had led a privileged life. ‘Surely having an opinion wasn’t against the law?’

Anna gazed into the flames of the fire. ‘It was. It is,’ she muttered. ‘And so we left immediately. We pack only essentials and left our home, our parents, our friends, and caught a train; we travel all night and all the following day, changing trains and sleeping on benches on station platforms. I was pregnant with Aron and was often sick.’

‘So where did you settle?’

‘We rested for few days, and then caught a train into East Prussia. You see,’ she explained, ‘Poland is occupied by Russia, Prussia and Austria, and Filip thought that if we tried to register to live in Austria they would want to know why we had left our home, and he was afraid the authorities would send us back. The children were tired and I wanted to stay, but Filip was uneasy, so we set off again and headed for Berlin and that took a very long time and by then I was nearing my time of giving birth.’

Ellen reached out and placed the kettle over the fire. This was proving to be a very long story, and she wondered, if she had been in Anna’s position, whether she would have survived.

Anna was almost talking to herself; it was as if she had bottled up their story for so long that once she began the telling of it, she could barely stop. Ellen made tea and handed her a cup which she took and sipped without a word, and then she began again, telling of moving on to a district near Berlin where other Jews had settled and they were given shelter and food and a room was found for them.